1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information communication system and a vehicle portable device, particularly to an information communication system and a vehicle portable device, for notifying a user of information on a vehicle.
2. Related Art
In a conventional studies, a display screen is provided in a vehicle portable device for locking and unlocking a door of a vehicle, vehicle information on a state of the vehicle and the like is acquired from the vehicle by wireless communication, and the vehicle information is allowed to be displayed on the display screen. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-126966 proposes that a vehicle key, for locking and unlocking the door of the vehicle in non-contact manner, acquires energy remaining information (a gasoline remaining amount or a battery remaining amount) on vehicle driving energy with a lock operation as a trigger, and displays the energy remaining information on a display part of the vehicle key.
However, power consumption increases in order to drive the display screen when the vehicle information is displayed on the vehicle portable device. In the proposal disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-126966, only the energy remaining information is displayed. When many more pieces of vehicle information are displayed, it is necessary to enlarge the display screen, which further increases the power consumption.
On the other hand, generally a single-use battery such as a button battery that is not rechargeable is used in the vehicle portable device. Therefore, with increasing power consumption, it is necessary to frequently change the battery.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,821,383, for example, proposes that the vehicle portable device (a portable FOB) conducts middle-range wireless communication with an in-car communication device, conducts short-range wireless communication with a portable communication terminal, and relays transmission of a menu from the in-car communication device to the portable communication terminal and transmission of a menu selection result from the portable communication terminal to the in-car communication device, thereby operating the vehicle from the portable communication terminal.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-46395, for example, proposes that a base unit incorporated in the vehicle and the vehicle portable device (an extension handset) conduct the wireless communication with each other to control a vehicle key, the portable communication terminal is connected to the extension handset in a wired manner, information on a setting change is transmitted to the base unit through the extension handset when a user operates a setting change screen displayed on the portable communication terminal, thereby changing the setting of in-car devices.
International Patent Publication No. 2006/090460, for example, proposes that, when the portable communication terminal reads an individual recognition code from a wireless IC tag, application software associated with the individual recognition code is automatically started up in the portable communication terminal.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-112617, for example, proposes that charge characteristic data of the battery is transmitted from an in-car device to a portable device when the battery of the vehicle is charged. In the portable device, in the case where the charge information cannot be received from the in-car device when a charge inquiry button of the portable device is pressed, a battery predicted remaining amount and a predicted time until the charge is completed are calculated using the previously acquired charge characteristic data, and the battery predicted remaining amount and the predicted time are displayed on the display part.